MiamiHerald.com: From Our Inbox

First Amendment protects more than press

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:00 EDT

The Obama administration announced last week that it is throwing its support behind the press shield law that has been stalled in Congress since time immemorial. Critics insist that the administration, suddenly mired in scandal, is simply trying to curry favor with the news media, but the proposal deserves to be judged on its merits.

The curious case of the black viral star

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00 EDT

We knew it was coming. The formula is practically scientific: Disaster strikes; poor black person foils it (preferably in a roller set) or escapes, then gives a live interview jam-packed with ridiculous quotes that even Beyonc can’t resist; the Internet memes flood Facebook; and the fame countdown starts at minute 15.

A half-century later, commencement wisdom Wisdom at commencement

Fri, 17 May 2013 16:00 EDT

In a season of commencement speeches, those trying to impart a measure of wisdom to college grads would do well to consult President John F. Kennedy’s American University speech, given 50 years ago next month.

How nonprofits cane to acquire tax-exempt status

Fri, 17 May 2013 08:00 EDT

The uproar over allegations of politically motivated investigations by the Internal Revenue Service shouldn’t be surprising given Americans’ long love affair with nonprofits and their strong disdain of partisanship, especially within bureaucracies.

U.S. government spies on reporters all too often

Thu, 16 May 2013 08:00 EDT

On Monday, the Associated Press revealed that some of its reporters were recently spied on by the Justice Department in what it called a “massive and unprecedented intrusion.” The feds secretly obtained AP journalists’ phone records as part of what is believed to be an ongoing investigation into leaks of classified information. But it’s not the first time U.S. authorities have adopted draconian surveillance tactics to uncover journalists’ confidential sources.

Accused U.S. spy’s tool get laugh from Russians

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:00 EDT

Two wigs, one blond, one dark. Three pairs of glasses. Two knives. Two envelopes containing 500 euro notes. One flashlight. One can of mace. One compass. One paper map of Moscow. One ancient Nokia phone. One letter in Russian, addressed “Dear friend.”

U.S. must fight harder against TB

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:00 EDT

In 2011, tuberculosis killed 1.4 million people worldwide, almost as many as died from HIV/AIDS. And death isn’t the only damage TB does.

GOP continues to anger Hispanics

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:00 EDT

Amid the scandal-mania, it has gone somewhat under the radar that the Florida state director of Hispanic outreach for the Republican National Committee, Pablo Pantoja, recently resigned his position and left the GOP. Indeed, Pantoja changed his party affiliation to Democrat.

IRS unites nation with shoddy treatment of tea party groups

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:14 EDT

Finally, a small cadre of busybody bureaucrats has discovered a way to bring this divided country together.

There is only one Kermit Gosnell

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:00 EDT

Kermit Gosnell, the notorious Philadelphia late-term abortionist, has been convicted. A jury found him guilty of murder for killing three babies after failed abortions, and of involuntary manslaughter for causing a woman’s death.

The dirty secrets of the CIA’s War on Terror

Tue, 14 May 2013 08:00 EDT

In April 1975, Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, impaneled a special investigative committee to look into shocking accounts of CIA dirty tricks. The Church Committee ultimately published 14 reports over two years revealing a clandestine agency that was a law unto itself — plotting to assassinate heads of state (Castro, Diem, Lumumba, Trujillo), carrying out weird experiments with LSD, and suborning American journalists. As a result, President Gerald Ford issued an executive order banning the assassination of foreign leaders, the House and Senate established standing intelligence committees, and the United States set up the so-called FISA courts, which oversee request for surveillance warrants against suspected foreign agents.

Adopt new attitude toward adoption

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:00 EDT

In today’s America, a single woman facing a surprise pregnancy is likely to consider just two options: abortion or single motherhood. The third choice, adoption, carries such a social stigma that domestic placement of infants has plummeted — even as the number of parents desperate for a baby grows.

Creating roadblocks to nuclear arms reductions

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:00 EDT

Not that we need one, but last week offered another example of congressional dysfunction, this time on defense.

Four steps to curb military sexual assault

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:00 EDT

The news that sexual harassment and assault in the military are more common than ever — not just that the number of reported incidents has climbed in the past two years but also that an estimated 26,000 personnel experienced unacceptable sexually aggressive and threatening behavior from their military colleagues — should come as no surprise to the Pentagon’s leaders: They have had the raw data for weeks. Moreover, the steps necessary to turn this situation around do not require months of study or reflection: These, too, should be well known to civilian and military leaders.

How to tell if college presidents are overpaid

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:49 EDT

The Chronicle of Higher Education tells us the median salary of public university presidents rose 4.7 percent in 2011-12 to more than $440,000 a year. This increase vastly outpaced the rate of inflation, as well as the earnings of the typical worker in the U.S. economy. Perhaps, most relevant for this community, it also surpassed the compensation growth for university professors.